Mercy
by Katastropheeeee
Summary: Sakura found Sasuke. It should have solved everything. But, his ruthless ambition turned Sakura into a deadly weapon - and subsequently destroyed her mind. Finally, Sakura is sent to destroy her master's brother - but can she destroy what she lives for?
1. Failure

Disclaimer: All the materials I used belong to their rightful owners. I take no profit from it. It is purely FanFiction, and is in no way associated with the anime.

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Mercy

Flat onyx met clear jade.

"What do you want?" he asked, keeping his eyes on hers. His eyes were like dark pits; threatening to swallow her up if she kept staring into them. She refused to back down, holding his gaze.

Tightening her grip on the blade at his throat, she said nothing. Her entire body was tensed, ready to deliver the final blow the moment he moved to attack her. Every single time he blinked, fear constricted her breathing and cold sweat dripped down her spine. When his lids finally opened after what seemed like an eternity, she checked his eyes for the tell-tale black and red swirl that would spell her doom.

But his eyes remained a cold black, locked on hers – gazing into her soul.

The rest of the house slept – there was nothing stopping her from killing the man she hated and despised with every fibre of her being. With just one flick of her wrist, she could puncture his main artery and sever his vocal chords. He would bleed out in an instant, and wouldn't be able to make a sound. It was the simplest motion, one she had perfected on her journey to find the Uchiha.

But - now that she was here - she couldn't.

He looked so much like his brother.

Their eyes were the same. They had the same malicious, aspiring glint. Or, at least she thought they did. Gazing into the Uchiha's eyes she did not see the bloodlust nor the cold anger that she was used to seeing when she was with Sasuke.

No, the older Uchiha's eyes were shining with defiance and pride. But most of all there was just confusion.

He was exposed. He was at her mercy.

An exasperated cry escaped her lips as she willed herself to slit the unarmed Uchiha's throat, and found that she couldn't.

Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes, and a single tear slipped out.

The kunoichi removed the blade from the pale, exposed flesh of the man's throat.

"I'm sorry…" she murmured gently.

Stepping back, she dropped the blade.

It seemed to fall in slow motion. She knew that this was the end. In moments she would be struck down. Even if she survived – she was as good as dead.

She had failed the mission.

It was her final test, the one she knew she had to pass since the beginning. Once she passed it – she could be happy.

If Itachi were dead, Sasuke would finally stop his relentless hunt. He would finally look at her as a person again, rather than as a sharpened weapon.

Sasuke would love her.

Without that, without him she was nothing more than a hollow shell.

Sakura had trained relentlessly. She had passed every test that Sasuke had assigned her. She had fought tooth and nail, broken countless bones and sustained countless injuries – but she had done what he had asked of her.

But still he denied her the affection that she craved.

This was her opportunity, her final test. She had convinced herself that once she had passed it, Sasuke would love her.

The blade clattered to the ground, wrenching her from her thoughts.

Out of nowhere, kick was dealt to the back of her legs and she collapsed to her knees. A small smile was playing on her lips as she hit the ground. Seconds later, there was a much larger, scaled blade digging into her throat, and blood trickling down out of the wound.

Sakura closed her eyes and tilted her head back - further exposing her throat – accepting her death.

As she waited, her mind was completely blank.

There was no alternative to her failure. Death was all that was left for her.

"Stop."

The kunoichi opened her eyes. Was this some cruel trick? To give her hope for a moment, then end her life just as she thought she was going to live.

Numbing anger overcame her. She lifted her head, tilting her chin upwards, her eyes locking on those of the older Uchiha.

She was drowning in his gaze.

Falling down a swirl of black, failure and sorrow – to a fate worse than death.

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[EndChapterOne]


	2. Confusion

Indignation was etched on her features, her eyes shining with defiance and rage.

Those eyes were locked on those of one Uchiha Itachi – recklessly gazing into those eyes that could kill her once activated. And he knew it.

Uchiha Itachi was confused. He was also tired and annoyed, but above all things he was confused.

Confusion was not something that this Uchiha was often – and on the rare occasion that he was, he disliked it and got to the bottom of it immediately.

However, at this point in time he was confused about several things.

Firstly, why he had been attacked.

Secondly, why he was still alive.

Thirdly, why she was so eager to die.

Finally, why he had stopped Kisame from killing her.

The fourth was the most pressing of them all. His own actions were reason for confusion. He could not rationalize why he had uttered the word that had spared her life.

Now, Kisame was looking to him for confirmation.

A simple nod would end the kunoichi's life. Usually this would not be an issue. Itachi would just nod and that would be the end of it. It would be simple and clean – well as clean as having one's throat ripped out can be.

But, now, for the first time he was hesitant to send this young woman to her death.

With her jade eyes boring into his own, blazing with anger, he found it difficult to sentence her to death. Not because of her anger. That just made him more likely to want to get rid of her.

No, it was because in her gaze he could see an emotion that he knew well.

Guilt.

In her eyes he could see the torturous pain of guilt eating away at her. But, he didn't know what was making her feel that way – and he was curious.

Itachi wanted to know why, because he was certain that this had something to do with why she hadn't killed him, why she was so eager to die, and more importantly why she had attacked him in the first place.

But if he had her killed, she would take her secrets to the grave. Then he would never know.

Once he knew why, he would no longer be confused.

Itachi realised that his thirst for clarity was what all stopping him, and in a way that scared him.

A low grunt from Kisame wrenched him from his thoughts.

The Uchiha wrenched his eyes from those of the kunoichi. Instead he locked eyes with those of his partner briefly.

He had made his choice.

"Leave her."

Kisame immediately withdrew his beloved blade from the girls exposed throat.

The darkly clad kunoichi stood, sticking out her chin defiantly.

The blood dribbling down from the wound in her throat clashed with the alabaster of her skin.

Strangely enough, it was difficult for the Uchiha to take his eyes off her throat.

After a moment of silence, she spoke.

"Well? What now?"

Not even a smidgen of gratitude.

For some reason, this irritated the S-Rank missing-nin. He had expected at least a little bit of gratitude; he had just spared her life after all.

If anything, it had just made her more reckless with her life.

It was as if she wanted to die.

Itachi knew that Kisame was more than happy to oblige.

His partner had just seen the Uchiha utterly defenseless against the blade kunoichi standing before them.

If she wanted to, she could have killed him.

"_I'm sorry…"_

The words that she had spoken moments before she removed her knife from his throat echoed in his mind.

Why was she sorry?

That was another question the Uchiha wanted answered.

With a sigh, the Uchiha returned his attention to the problem standing before him.

"Kisame."

The blue-skinned shark-man turned to face him, his grip tightening on his sword.

"Yes Itachi-sama?" came his immediate reply.

"Bring me her blade."

The kunoichi's eyes widened.

Fear flashed briefly in her eyes, as they darted to where the knife lay.

It was an unexpected reaction.

Why would she care if he had her blade?

It seemed as though she cared more for the blade than her life. She truly was a peculiar person.

Kisame handed him the mostly unremarkable blade.

It was a standard weapon of the Leaf. A basic kunai. It could both attack and deflect with ease. It was also an effective throwing knife.

But, the look on her face as he handled the blade was one of complete and utter panic.

A ghost of a smile came to life on the Uchiha's lips.

[EndChapterTwo]


	3. Nostalgia

Disclaimer: All the materials I used belong to their rightful owners. I take no profit from it. It is purely FanFiction, and is in no way associated with the anime.

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Mercy

Chapter Three: Nostalgia

The Uchiha had her knife.

This unsettled her more than she cared to admit.

Sakura took a step towards the Uchiha, ready to lunge and retrieve her blade.

Before she could attack however, she was immobilized by a grip of steel around her forearm, followed by a blade at her throat.

Sakura kept her eye on the knife in Itachi's long fingers.

Granted it was just a basic knife – but that knife was the only link that remained between her and her former village.

Sakura had left Konoha just over two years ago, certain that she would not return.

Defection was easier than she thought it would be, but forgetting those from her past was that much harder.

Nostalgia would be the end of her.

Kakashi-sensei was one of those people that she had difficulty forgetting.

Naruto she had banished from her mind as soon as she could – because in all honesty, it hurt too much for her to remember him. But Kakashi-sensei clung to her memories, refusing to be forgotten.

Sasuke encouraged it.

'_You must forget. You have left them behind. They mean nothing to you now.'_

His cold words seemed to be ever present in her mind.

The knife in the cold hands of the older Uchiha standing before her had been given to her by that silver-haired sensei. It wasn't a big event – but it had been forever stuck in her mind.

No matter how many times Sasuke had ordered her to get rid of it, she refused.

This knife was her link, her one possession that she had retained from her time as a Konoha kunoichi, and she'd do absolutely anything for it. It was important to her.

That was her weakness: her foolish connection with the past.

Gritting her teeth, Sakura glared up at her antagonist, the older Uchiha. All of her hate and anger towards the Akatsuki had been poured into his face. When she thought of the Akatsuki, he was the one she saw.

Sasuke's goal had become her own.

Killing Uchiha Itachi had been what she had trained for, lived for. It was the one thing standing between her and happiness.

Sakura had made it her reason to live.

Everything that had transpired since then, her defection from Konoha, joining Sasuke and training beneath him had been done had lead up to the moment she killed Itachi.

If the older Uchiha were dead, Sasuke would come home.

Part of Sakura still believed that.

When she left Konoha to find Sasuke and help him kill Itachi, she never saw failure as an option.

But this was the situation that she was presented with. She never thought that this would happen.

For the past two years she had trained to kill him. She had mastered dispelling illusions, taken countless beatings from Sasuke and somehow managed to go on.

The death of Uchiha Itachi would result in Sasuke going back to normal, ceasing his endless hunt, and finally accepting her love.

It was what wanted with all of her heart.

Sasuke had grown cold and distant during his hunt for his brother.

The only emotion that he expressed towards Sakura was anger and disappointment. He would mercilessly correct her technique, trained her until she collapsed and then expected her to get up again.

Sakura rose to his challenge, endeavoring to meet his expectations. But, once she had met them, he raised them higher, never satisfied with her improvement demanding more.

As a result, Sakura worked harder.

Sasuke always wanted more. Whatever she gave him was never enough. It just made Sakura train harder and longer. The said bubblegum haired kunoichi had become lean and flexible, with muscles of steel and no breaking point in sight.

Sakura was able to endure combat for several hours against different opponents in different disciplines, her evading skills that she had honed as a medic-nin coming in handy.

Breaking bones was nothing new for Sakura. Sasuke insisted on beating her to make her mind stronger so that she would not succumb to torture and reveal secrets.

Sasuke had almost killed her once, beating her within an inch of her life.

Yet still Sakura remained by his side, determined to have his love.

The kunoichi continued to become stronger and more skilled; mastering advanced hand-to-hand combat techniques as well as training to dispel the Sharingan, eventually becoming skilled enough to see through the strongest of Sasuke's illusions.

Love was what she sought, and the death of one man would grant her that.

Three words wrenched her from her thoughts.

"Take her away…"

Sakura froze.

Those words could have been Sasuke's. They sounded so similar. She looked up with a start, double-checking that Sasuke was not in the room with them.

After a quick once over, she confirmed that he was not there.

Uchiha Itachi stared at her, in what seemed to be confusion. He still had her blade.

"_Take her away…" _

The words circled in her mind. It was as if Sasuke knew she had failed, and had spoken out, condemning her failure.

Sakura closed her eyes, tears welling up in her throat. Biting them back she gazed up at her target.

The Uchiha turned to go.

"Please…" she murmured softly.

Tears spilled over onto her cheeks as she gazed up at him, her eyes imploring him to kill her, rather than have her endure the shame of failure.

Sakura did not want to live.

Sasuke would kill her if he found out that she had failed. It was not an option.

The S-rank missing-nin turned to face her again, his cold onyx eyes looked down on her, contempt lacing his gaze. Instead of Itachi, Sakura saw Sasuke looking down at her.

With a nod to the shark man restraining her, he left.

It was over.

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[EndChapterThree]


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